wow, wow, WOW!
The incredible Kristine over at Knit Happens (a great new yarn shop in Alexandria, VA) has started a Fiona Knitalong group! First visit the Knit Happens blog, then head on over to the Yahoo Fiona Knitalong group to join! Kristine, thanks (now I REALLY wish I was perfect)!

P.S. For those of you just joining us, the pattern for Fiona is available here.

oops again
Attention: knitters of Fiona--my students alerted me to a ::blush:: mistake last night in the pattern. Under the Sides heading, I say this:

Foundation Round: K1F+B, place marker (PM), P14, K1, K1F+B, P29, K1, K1F+B, P14, K1 K1F+B, P29, K1 (98 sts total). Round now starts at marker.

The "K1" should actually be a "K3." Therefore, the correct instructions should read:

Foundation Round: K1F+B, place marker (PM), P14, K1, K1F+B, P29, K1, K1F+B, P14, K1 K1F+B, P29, K3 (98 sts total). Round now starts at marker.

Sorry about that--I hope that's the only faux pas, although I wouldn't be surprised if it's not. Please mark your copies accordingly and I will change the master pattern later tonite. Not being perfect just stinks!

in memoriam
Yesterday we had to put our dear Osiris down--the vet said he had the advanced stages of liver disease. We miss him so much already and are thankful that we were able to enjoy his loveable quirks and idiosyncrasies for the last 13+ years. He had a fierce independent streak and lived life on his own terms, but allowed us to get close to him in spite of that! Kittyboy, wherever you are, I hope you get lots of catnip mousies to play with, and nobody to steal your food! xoxo

oops
Holy cow, I've already exceeded my bandwidth again, therefore if the link below for Fiona doesn't work, use this one.
   Sorry about that! One of these days this site will be self-sustaining, until then these temporary outages are bound to occur.

here's fiona!
You guys have been so kind! And since there's almost 60 seconds left in the weekend, here she is!
   One small disclaimer though: you guys are "beta-testing" this one along with me and my students--if you find an inconsistency or mistake let me know ASAP and I'll fix it. I apologize in advance for any faux pas that may exist in the pattern. Can't wait to see your finished bags! xoxo

introducing... fiona!
Yes, here's what I've been secretly working on as a project for my students: a spring/summer cotton tote! Worked in the wonderful mission falls 1824 cotton, it features a garter stitch rectangular base, reverse stockinette stitch body with a triple cross faux cable at the corners. I added a seed stitch mobile phone pocket and used applied I-cord at the top edge and pocket flap edge, along with I-cord for the drawstring. Raise your hand if you want a FREE fiona bag pattern this weekend!

more secret pal goodies
Lookie what my secret pal sent yesterday--some very bright pink novelty yarn--yay! I'm already trying to figure out what to do with it--maybe edging on a pair of mittens? The photo above doesn't do the color justice--it's REALLY bright! Thanks, secret pal! xoxo

leaf it
Bet you guys thought I had shelved this project, but I decided to work a few more leaves the other day. I love the two green ones with the eyelet fold-over edge--I had not done this technique before and really like it. I'd love to incorporate it into a future design somehow. And I imagine I'll probably work several more of the little basic gold leaf--of all the leaves I've done it was the quickest and easiest to do. And thinking I might be done with the leaves, I laid 'em all out on the blanket and realized I definitely need more. Since this blanket is for our future daughter (and I'd like to bring it on our trip to get her) I figured while I have all this time to kill, I could tie up all the loose ends (tee-hee, like the pun?). Not sure if this means I'll get her room painted before she arrives though!

knitting class
Class last night went great! I've got some terrific students who actually already know how to knit and purl, so we'll be doing some more of the fun textured stitches and shaping. It's so much fun having an excuse to talk about knitting for two hours!

one down!
I am so embarrassed at my slow progress on these socks, I actually considered not posting about them. But I figure: one sock down is cause for celebration. (Heck--a sunny day around here would be cause for celebration--we've had rain for four days.) Note to sock recipient: I promise to move the second sock into high gear. As soon as I cast on for it, tee-hee!

cardi-crafting
I am now working on the back. I have a few comments to make about this pattern--namely that I've found a couple of errors. Not critical errors though. I'm making the large size and Ms. Ferguson asks us to pick up fewer stitches than actually needed to create the correct patterning. Will be more specific about this later, when I have the instructions in front of me--she's only off by 2 or 4 stitches. Not that *I* would ever write errors in a knitted pattern, right? *blush*
   She also says (for the back and both fronts) to pick up and knit the stitches from the sides of the saddle shoulders, then to break the yarn so you can begin on a right-side row. Dear readers, there's no way in h*ll I'd ever do that, since I absolutely despise weaving in ends. So what did I do? Pick up and purl from the wrong side, silly! No big deal--and only one end to weave in, instead of three!

teaching gig
Class starts TONITE! I'm nervous, but excited. Have completed an entire swatch knitted right-handed, including knit, purl, rib, seed, cables, and will finish it off with an eyelet row then some fully-fashioned decreases. And--I've even started work on a design especially for my students (and you guys). Details to come soon! Hooray!

spring fever?
I have a terrible case of ennui. And a overwhelming urge to whine. I'll skip the whining (mainly about waiting on our adoption referral) and say that the ennui is directed at all the things that I'm supposed to be doing. With this weather, can you blame me? We've hit 75 this week for the first time in months, it's sunny to boot--would it really be so bad to mysteriously escape from the office this afternoon and drive around with the windows down instead? Maybe I'll even pick up some ice cream.

cardi-crafting
I am still loving this project. A small part of me feels guilty for knitting somebody else's pattern instead of concocting my own, but when the pattern is this good, who cares if I didn't think of it myself? I'd like other designers to knit my stuff, so--note to self: get OVER it!

teaching gig
I'm collecting students for the Basics with Brooks class, which starts in a week! Thanks to all of you who pointed me in the right direction re: slingshot cast-on. Will give a full report after the first class!

ben franklin
Stopped in to ben franklin last Saturday at the urging of my mother--and WOWZA! They have really beefed up their yarn selection since the last time I visited a couple of years ago--aisles and aisles of nice stuff, including Opal, Patons (the only place I've seen yarn for the Must Have, which I will probably start in the fall), the required Lion Brand and Red Heart selections, and all sorts of eyelash/scarf yarns. Hooray!

an open letter to my secret pal
Thank you so much for the awesome music mix--a few of the songs and artists I was already familiar with but most of it is delightfully new to me! I've got it at work until the day I get my new wheels--my current ride doesn't have a CD player, if you can believe it! BTW, my current favorite song is Are We Ever... by Amy Rigby--boy, can I identify with that! Thanks again--what a delightful and thoughtful gift. Now, if I could ever carve out time to do something with my own drivin' tunes list...

cardi-crafting
Way back on Sunday I posted some new progress over at the Everyday Cardi Knit-a-Long--my progress has slowed because of a few trips to the frog pond. Doing complicated cabling patterns seems easy at first, but if your attention strays for even a moment it sometimes results in going back and doing a row over again. It's still fun though, I just need to stop trying to rush it!

teaching gig
Got some more information from the LYS yesterday--looks like I'll be starting my class whenever I want to, which probably means Wednesday night, April 14. And I spent an hour or so last night teaching myself right-handed continental knitting--tonight I'll try to purl a few rows (for those of you keeping score, I've been knitting using the left-handed English method for years and years). The lady at the LYS also said they teach the "slingshot" cast-on--none of my books mention the word slingshot specifically with regard to casting on. Do any of you know which cast on she's referring to?

thanks
Thanks to all of you who have left kind comments about various things--I really do appreciate it even if I'm enough of a loser to be unable to respond to each and every comment. You guys have brought me out of my late winter funk! And a special thank you goes out to my dear buddy San who bought a copy of my Shire scarf pattern--even though we're heading into Spring! Sandy, dear, you made my day! xoxo